Unofficial Biography of Shaykh Hamza Yusuf

The Unofficial Biography of Shaykh Hamza

This is an unofficial Biography of Shaykh Hamza Yusuf
Hanson. It was written without his knowledge, but later received his
acknowledgement. All information is based on the public domain and heavily
referenced in the end notes.

Only items that could be corroborated or referenced were
included. Rumors or innuendo were generally ignored (unless I couldn't resist).
The Biography does not include any official information and should be taken as
an unofficial Biography.

I tried to keep personal information about his immediate
family out, for privacy reasons.

"Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius
hits a target no one else can see."
- Arthur Schopenhauer

"I don't know anybody that knows English Poetry
better than my father does. He was somebody, who as far as I can tell, had a
religious experience at Columbia University, taking classes with a man named
Mark Van Doren.[I]

Van Doren was a teacher of literature. He taught the
Great Literature of Western Civilization[II],
and my father sat in his classes for 3 years at Columbia University, and then
audited his classes.

…He named me after Mark Van Doren (Mark Hanson). I was
his first born son, and I think that tells you the impact this man had on his
life.

My father actually wrote a commentary on an Elizabethan
treatise on Verse. So I grew up hearing (a lot of poetry) and also just hearing
his discussions of these things.

But I didn't appreciate any of it until I had a great
teacher and that occurred in the Middle East. And he was from West
Africa."[1]

"He is like Oceans, wherever you look, you will find
precious things."
-Shaykh Abdullah al-Kadi

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf was born Mark Hanson, in Walla Walla,
Washington, 1958. The second boy and the middle of seven children. [III]He grew up on
the suburban West Coast.

Speaking of his Parents, Shaykh Hamza says,

"My father was a University Professor in Northern
California. On my mother's side, they've been in California for over 100
years, so it's an old Californian family. And I was raised (with a) Christian
background."[2]

"…Both my parents are University educated, are very
broad minded people. My father was a humanities professor, (he has) very
philosophical inclinations in his world view. "[3]

Shaykh Hamza states that his Mother was conscious of the
environment, eating organic food and being respectful of the Earth. She
inculcated this belief in her children and Shaykh Hamza grew up eating Cucumber
sandwiches, and other wholesome foods.

"My mother went to Berkeley, and that says enough.
She was very active in the civil rights movement. She took me when I was 12,
to the Soledad Brother's (trial), to George Jackson's prison trial, just to see
what was happening, that there were political struggles going on in this
country.

She was very opposed to the Vietnam War. We grew up,
with a lot of social awareness…my close family is wealthy, my particular family
is not wealthy at all…But definitely the area we were in was quite wealthy. So,
I think my Mother wanted to make sure that we understood that this country has
a lot of inequities.

My sister was in Salma, Alabama marching …that's the type
background we were raised in. And the 60's was a fascinating time. Berkeley
was right across the street, I grew up quite literally across the street…and we
were aware that there were big things happening, in the states."[4]

Shaykh Hamza traces his roots to various European sources.
His family has a rich American history, some of his ancestors reaching North
America in the 1700's and being involved in early American history.

His lineage links back to Scottish, Greek, and Northern
European blood. About his paternal lineage, he says,

"My great, great grandfather, Michael O'Hanson, fled
the impending potato famine of Ireland and arrived in America in the early
1840s with his bride, Bridget. They headed for Philadelphia…a mecca for
Irish-Catholic immigrants then.

They didn't get a warm welcome to America, and instead
found themselves smack in the middle of the Nativist anti-Irish-Catholic riots
of 1844, which left scores of people dead and two beautiful Catholic churches
destroyed. The riots were prompted by false rumors that the Irish-Catholics
wanted the Bible removed from public schools to ensure Protestant doctrine
would not be taught to their children.

Ordinary Americans were appalled by the viciousness of
the attacks, and their good sense prevailed. It eventually led to the famous
consolidation of the city in 1854. But Irish-Catholics had still not arrived,
and my great grandfather, Michael Hanson Junior, dropped the "O" from
his Gaelic name and blended into Philadelphia society, going into partnership
with the enlightened Jewish newspaper giant, Paul Block. And while he practiced
his Catholicism openly, he hid his Irish ancestry even from his own children,
to spare them the perceived shame of being Irish in upper class society."[5]

Shaykh Hamza's paternal great-grandfather (father’s mother’s
father) was Archibald Chisholm. Archibald was an Iron-Ore magnate and owned large
parts of the Iron Range.[IV]In
1901, he plotted the town Chisholm, Minnesota, and had it incorporated as a
village. [6]
Shaykh Hamza's own father was born in Duluth, Minnesota.

On his Mother's side, Shaykh Hamza's great-grandfather and
grandfather entered the US in 1896 through Ellis Island[7]. Shaykh Hamza
relates a story about his Grandfather,

"My grandfather was a very successful business man.
He had what they call "The Midas touch", everything he touched turned
to Gold. One day he was with his wife, and they went to a church to go to a
wedding. My Grandfather was not a religious man at that time, and when they
came in, there was a big statement on the wall.

It's a quote from the Gospel, and it said, "What has
a man gained, if he's gained the whole world, and lost his soul?"

My Grandmother said to my Grandfather, "That's a
question you should ask yourself."

Well, he became a very religious person after that, in
his own way, in the way he understood. He ended up sending me and my sister, to
a camp (In Greece), and I was 12 years old…To teach us the precepts of our
religion."[8]

One of his Grandfather’s raised horses on a ranch, and
Shaykh Hamza would spend time there, learning to ride horses.

Another Grandfather was the President of the Orthodox Church
in Marin County[9].
Possibly a factor relating to Shaykh Hamza's early education in the Greek
Orthodox Church.